Monday, April 24, 2006

Looking to the future

Last week I blogged about a public meeting here in town. I mentioned that I was a little skeptical of what would be accomplished at said meeting. But in the end I did go (sat near the door so I could quietly slip out if I wanted but ended up staying for the whole hour).

Actually, in the end I was impressed. THere were a variety of ideas in a variety of industries being put forward as possibilities. True, some of them were resource-extraction based but not all. Some were tourism, some were information technological. It seems that some of them are garnering support too. So there is a chance.

But here is the rub. For some, if not all, of them to succeed may require townspeople not only supporting but also being willing to change. That is always the sticking point isn't it. Don't tell us to change, just make things better. Too bad it doesn't work that way.

THe one thing that disappointed me was that there were little what I would call truly innovative ideas. Governments these days may be really willing to fund projects that lead to ways to live out things like the Kyoto protocol (although the Federal governmetn seems to be backing away). In a sort-of remote place lke this much research could be done, testing new ideas without pre-existing pollutants to throw off the results. I think there is money to be had there. We just need the ideas.